Ukulele Tonya

Nope, we’re not “sssshhhhing” anyone in our library. The materials in the new Ukuleles of Paradise library are meant to help you makes some great music (noise?) and help you play better.

In addition to a copy of The Daily Ukulele for use during meetings, the library of Ukuleles of Paradise now has a wealth of learning materials. I’ve put the word out about our lending library and a Bay Area friend in the ukulele world has gifted us with some wonderful resources. This donation was at no cost to us, meaning I’ll be using the money we have in our “fund” to buy even more items. (Thank you very much, Peter and Craig!)

Go here to browse the titles in our library (I know, it says “My Library” and has my photo, but I can’t change that heading in the library software—it really is our library for Ukuleles of Paradise!). The library shows a short description of each item; I’m looking forward to member reviews of their favorite learning materials in the library and I’ll include those reviews in the description. Members may borrow the materials (one at a time, please) at no cost for one month. All you need to do is send me an e-mail ahead of time and I’ll bring the items to the meeting. I figure that’s easier than me becoming a human packhorse and hauling them all to each of our meetings!

These materials are not for duplicating (copyright laws clearly prohibit the copying of items not in the public domain) but for you to borrow to learn from—and perhaps decide to buy a copy for yourself.

(Read on …)

Santa’s budget might have been a bit tight around your house this year. So, of course, that certainly explains why you didn’t find the William King tenor or a 3K Martin under your tree come Christmas morning.

But if you’ve been good (and if you’re an ukulele player, I’m just gonna guess that you’re “good” in some form or another), you might have some Christmas cash that someone slipped your way and told you to buy yourself “something you’d like.”

Now’s the time to do the buying. Thanks to Jim and Liz Beloff, I have just the suggestion for you to start the new year with ukulele joy: run to your nearest computer, log on to Flea Market Music and buy yourself a copy of The Daily Ukulele: 365 Songs for Better Living.

Yes, it’s $34.99. And, yes, all of you penny-pinchers, you can find a lot of ukulele songs on the Internet for FREE. And, yes, some clubs (notably the folks in Santa Cruz) have some wonderful “collections” of fun-to-play ukulele songs for a small fraction of the $34.99.

But there’s simply no comparison with Daily Ukulele. Not only is it the creative offspring of Beloff, who reigns as ukedom’s own pater-familias, but if you had to limit your music shelf to just one item, you can consider it “the only songbook” an ukulele player really needs.

Believe me, I don’t say that easily. As someone with a passion for Hawaiian-style playing, I typically don’t like “all in one” songbooks because they rarely have any island songs, or they have just a few. This collection though has a great selection of Hawaiian—as well as songs from every other genre (a complete listing of songs is on the website above).

(Read on …)

What do lawn chairs, mosquitos, music stands and the summer solstice have in common?

They were all in evidence as members of Ukuleles of Paradise heralded the first day of summer with an evening of “Plunkin’ in the Park.”

More than a dozen of us gathered at Paradise’s Rotary Grove Aquatic Park (aka “the duck pond”) just off Buschmann Road for the fun. While we began the evening with some classic summer tunes (“Yankee Doodle” and “Take Me Out to the Ballgame”) we had plenty of time to strum and sing some of our “old” favorites before the evening was through.

Some interesting findings from that evening:

• We didn’t appear to scare anyone away who was already enjoying the park.
• No ducks joined us in a musical chorus.
• Mosquitoes become more aggressive as the shadows grow longer (but my new OFF! “clip-on mosquito repellant” device seemed to keep the little biting buggers away from those downwind of me—or perhaps it was just something about me???)
• Collapsible lawn chairs without arms are best because there’s nothing to interfere with energetic ukulele right- and left-hand techniques. Over at Walgreens (corner of Skyway and Bille) they have the perfect outdoor jamming chairs: only $6.99 and they come in turquoise, deep blue, green and PINK!

How about joining us in July? We’ll be at the same place and time (6:30 pm) on Monday, July 19.

(Oh, and if you have great mosquito repellent, I want to sit downwind of you!)